Ghosts Attack's Alternate Reality

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Slipping into the space between spaces.

By Levi Buchanan

Alternate reality gaming is not a new idea. The concept mixing fantasy elements into a game played in this world has been happening for years. It's been attempted in videogames many times with mixed results. A memorable failure was Majestic, the online alternate reality game that should have taken off like a rocket, what with is complex mystery that used multiple mediums to create a layer of reality over ours. Tarver Games' upcoming Ghosts Attack is keeping in that spirit. Using Google Maps within the iPhone, the game sets up a veil of reality over the one you and I currently occupy.

The game sets up an intriguing backstory. In the sixties, a science outfit called Torgan developed a teleporter that didn't exactly do what the package promised. It ripped a hole into a parallel universe. Thirteen Togan scientists were pulled into the portal and never seen again, despite several rescue missions. Now, you are going to use the same technology to re-open the portal and steer a robotic drone into that parallel world. And as you will soon discover, our neighboring dimension isn't exactly full of friendly folks. The thirteen missing scientists might even have something to do with that.

When you first start Ghosts Attack, you run through a brief opening narrative with your co-pilot. Then, you slip into that alternate dimension by either allowing the game to use your current location or inputting another address. After a few moments, you are seeing through the drone's camera. If you know the neighborhood you picked, you will recognize the street layout. The game does not pull in everything from the map. If you dive into your alternate neighborhood, you will not see your house or local 7-11. Instead, non-streets appear as shimmering scrapers. However, if you look down (done by simply tilting your iPhone down), you will see the street names below.

What lies just beyond the veil of your town?

Exploring the alternate reality is easy with tilt steering. You speed up with a series of throttle buttons on the left side of the screen and fire your weapons with buttons on the right. What exactly are you firing at? The denizens of this alternate reality are called ghosts, and they are not sheet-covered kind. They appear as mask-like manifestations. It's kind of creepy, the first time you see one of these things moving down your street.

There are seventeen missions to undertake in this reality. As you play, you unlock upgrades to your drone as well as new weapons to use against the ghosts. Over time, Tarver plans to expand this universe with extra content packs. Episodic content will further flesh out the narrative of the missing scientists and the world that Torgan accidentally discovered.

In addition to the episodic content, Tarver is also creating a network of places you can go to learn more about the narrative. On these sites, you will find video and story elements. They are not essential to playing the game, but if the story of the missing scientists intrigues you (I'm certainly curious to see where this goes), then you can explore. Ghosts Attack also uses Facebook connectivity to communicate with other players and invite friends. However, the most interesting aspect of this is the ability to drop "beacons" into the alternate world for other players to find. This allows players to coalesce around certain addresses, which in turn furthers the community that Tarver wants to spring up around the game.

Ghosts Attack will be available this month for $4.99. I am very interested in reaction to the game, as I believe the alternate reality gaming genre is one that the iPhone can and should own. After all, it is a connected device with multiple streams for reaching the user, such as email, text, phone call, web, and app.